Trains and Lovers by Alexander McCall Smith
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Working in a library for years I've checked in and out many of Alexander McCall Smith's series, never once reading them myself, although I knew they were beloved by many. So when I came across this little novel on our new shelf the cover and title drew me in along with my love of compartmentalized British trains. I had no idea that AMS could delve inside the human brain and remember all the little chatty details of our life. What a discovery! Trains and Lovers is the story of four ordinary people on a train journey from Edinburgh, Scotland to London, England. All but one have a story to share about love - lost love, first love, love without trust, and parental love. The fourth ponders on his fellow passenger's tales but keeps his own story to himself.

A very enjoyable quick read, gentle and witty, for followers of McCall Smith and people like me who are just discovering him. Favorite quotes: .. the story of four people, all strangers to one another, who met on that train, and of how love touched their lives in very different ways. Love is nothing out of the ordinary, even if we think it is; even if we idealise it, celebrate it in poetry, sentimentalise it in coy valentines. Love happens to just about everyone; it is like measles or the diseases of childhood; it is as predictable as the losing of milk teeth, or the breaking of a boy's voice. It may visit us at any time, in our youth but also when we are much older and believe we are beyond its reach; but we are not. It has been described as a toothache, a madness, a divine intoxication, metaphors that reflect the disturbing effect it has on our lives. It may bring surprise, joy, despair and occasionally perfect happiness. But for each person who is made happy by love, there will be many for whom it turns out to be cause for regret . . . The heart has more than its fair share of ghosts, and these ghosts may be love, in any of its many forms. There are many ways of falling off the high moral ground you’ve carefully built up for yourself. Moral ground is like that – slippery at the edges.

View all my reviews